Healing doll: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Hand-carved wooden doll. Figure has human-like body, with carved legs, a head, and arms. Figure's arms are conncected to body using nails at shoulders. Arms have ability to move forward and backward. Figure appears to have some sort of headwear carved in to the top of the figures head. A rusted nail protrudes out of the figures mouth area.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1880s
• Created by: Unidentified
• Type: voodoo dolls
• Medium: wood, metal
• Dimensions: 8 5/8 × 2 3/8 × 1 7/8 in. (21.9 × 6 × 4.8 cm)
• Cultural Place: Georgia, United States, Sea Islands, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Folklife
• Topic: Religion
• Object number: 2014.312.10
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Oprah Winfrey
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.